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ritable, and Bible charity is not dishonest. (Loud cheers.) It must delight us all to reflect, that the affairs of the Church are in better hands than yours or ours, in the hands of Him who loved the Church, and gave himself for it. We are poor erring mortals, unfit of ourselves to guide our own foosteps, and altogether unfit to manage the affairs of that great society-the Church. How often are we toiling at the oar to gain one point and get on in one direction, when a deeper and resistless current is conveying us in the opposite direction; and let us rejoice that the guidance of that current belongs to Christ, who loves the Church, and who has on his vesture and on his thigh, King of kings, and Lord of lords, and that our affairs and yours are in his hands. (Great cheering.)

DR KING was received with loud applause. He said,-At this late hour, any remarks with which I may trouble you will necessarily be brief. The Free Church of Scotland has been this day acknowledged by churches, by congregations, and by missions, and in an especial manner all must have been deeply gratified by the appearance of the venerable pastor from Geneva. It must have been gratifying, indeed. to this Assembly to receive such acknowledgments; for it has too often happened that Christian churches have had little but hostile intercourse with each other. We appear here, however, this evening an exception to this state of things; and if there be any wrong and jealousy, any heart-burning, we hold them in abeyance, and in the spirit of our Lord we bid God speed to you and your noble enterprise. It is not that we make any sacrifice of principle-it is not that we abandon any principle which we have ever held, and which we still consider sacred, although some may think that our appearance here wears such an aspect, and may look upon this step as premature and imprudent. It may be so; but there are times when I would rather be borne along by the tide of charity, than tremblingly follow the dictates of prudence. (Applause.) But if caution and prudence is to be inculcated, then I fall back upon this-" By these shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another." We don't come here, I have said, to sacrifice our principles-as little do we appear offensively to obtrude them. We are not ashamed of them, but our object here is not controversy it is not even remonstrance—it is recognition and congratulation. (Loud applause.) And if our good understanding were, in any point, in danger—if, for example, any of the Secession churches were in danger from the aggression of illconsidered zeal, we could not put a more effectual check upon such a proceeding than by showing a large confidence in your fair and honourable dealing. We appear here to testify our agreements; and are they not great and numerous? We subscribe the Westminster Confession of Faith. So do you. We are of the same precious faith, and maintain that all men are guilty, and that no sinner can be justified but through Christ, and that he must be washed in his blood and sanctified by his Spirit. We maintain with you that the church is a spiritual society, of which Christ is the sole King and Head-that the people are its legitimate members-and that His Word is its only charter-book. These, he observed, are the principles which we hold, and are prepared to avow. (Hear.) And as we place our all to the grace of God, so we look forward to a glorious time when those distinctions, which yet exist, shall be done away, and when we shall mingle our voices in celebrating the song of Moses and of the Lamb. Holding these principles, we believe that we shall yet be united in a glorious church, having neither spot nor wrinkle, when these shall be destroyed, and when it shall not be left to us to cast out by the way. (Applause.) Let us then look to the sameness of our position. We inherit the same favoured and beloved land; we have the same encouragements and discouragements, the same allies and opponents. We have the same motto on our banner-the spiritual independence of the Redeemer's kingdom; our faith points to the same land which is to be occupied, and we recognise the same injunction-"Go ye up and possess it." You will not suppose I am about to precipitate an union; we are not ready for incorporation; but I believe the event will take place, and it is our shame that it is not nearer; but at the present moment it is impossible; and whatever may be our present position we should keep this end in view, and beware of doing a sin gle act or uttering a single word that will retard or embitter that glorious and blessed

consummation. I may not detain you. (Go on, go on.) Let me say, then, that I agree in all that has been said regarding the noble sacrifice, not unparalleled in the history of individuals, but unparalleled, certainly, in the history of so large a body. But you are giving us still greater cause to admire you, in those noble efforts which you are instituting and advancing for the spread of the gospel. You mean to put us to shame with all our Voluntary boasting. (Hear, hear, and a laugh.) We are before you with our principle, and you are determined to be before us with its application. (Loud applause.) There is much ingenuity in this mode of silencing us. You are determined to out-do us. We are determined not to be outdone; and if we have a rivalry, it will be that of provoking each other to love and good works. In former times we have had occasion to find fault with the statistical position which you have assigned to us. You have dealt with us as geographers do with Shetland in the map of Scotland. You have not assigned us a place in the body of the map, but have placed us in a corner, almost out of sight. (Laughter.) Notwithstanding this, I hope that our influence will be felt, and felt for good. Do all that you propose to do, and more. Exceed your own bright example, and this is vast. Take the Apostles and the early Reformers as your models-but even though you do this, you will not have all the work to yourselves. I trust we are duly sensible of our own nothingness; but by the grace of God you will find us in the streets and lanes of the city, and by the highways and hedges, addressing the outcasts, and compelling them to come in—you will find us on the hillside and in the valley. There you may find the evangelical Baptists and Congregationalists; but you will also find the United Secession Church of Scotland; and I trust all will work together for the dissipation of ignorance, for the eradication of crime, for the destruction of civic or ecclesiastical tyranny, and for spreading over the land pure, free, and independent spiritual Christianity. (The reverend Doctor concluded amid loud applause.)

Dr BROWN of Edinburgh next addressed the Assembly. He stated that he never occupied any situation in which he felt greater pleasure than now; and he most cordially concurred in every statement which had been made by his brethren. (Cheers.) It was indeed, he observed, difficult to convey to the minds of their brethren of the Free Protesting Church an adequate idea of the deep interest which they (the members of the United Secession) had taken in their contendings, and the most cordial satisfaction which they felt in the result. They had come to give utterance to their feelings, and to state that they regarded the Free Church with admiration and cordial love. They have (said Dr B.) a place in our hearts next to the body of Christians with whom we are more closely connected, and we look forward with an earnest desire and a confident hope to the period, which we think is not likely to be a distant one, when the two bodies will be closely united. (Hear, hear.) What we have chiefly to guard against is that of which we are warned in the gospel, by a statement peculiarly calculated to make an impression on our minds. It was towards the close of our Saviour's sojourn upon earth, and upon an occasion on which he seems to have been more than ordinarily sad and alone. His disciples entered into a warm dispute, apparently not aware that their Master's eye was upon them, and after going on their way, they arrived, at the close of the day, at the place where they rested. What was the cause of your dispute by the way? asked their Master; but they were ashamed, for they disputed which of them should be greatest. Let us instantly keep to mind, then, that the eyes of our Lord are upon us, and if at the close of the day, he should ask, Why dispute ye by the way? let it be exemplified that our great dispute has been which shall be most active and successful in promoting the honour and glory of our common Lord and Master. (Loud applause.) DR MAKELLAR said, he could not say how grateful they ought to be to God for the many mercies they had this day received at his hands. Among these, it was not the least that they had seen among them deputations from the Reformed Presbyterian Synod, and the Synod of the United Secession Church, who had addressed them in a tone and in terms which were calculated to refresh and comfort their hearts. He hoped the Assembly would not be satisfied by merely giving a response to their courtesy and kindness, but that they would sincerely say, and he trusted that God would not allow them to sacrifice principle or truth, that, through the

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grace of God sanctifying their hearts and minds, they might be drawn together by the cords of a man and by the bands of brotherly affection; and he hoped that the time was not far distant when the circumstances which had so long separated them would in the Lord's time be taken out of the way, and that they would all be joined together and striving only in their obedience to their Divine Master. At that late hour he would not enlarge on a subject which would afford ample room for remark, but he would confidently say, in the name of every member of the Assembly, that they gave the most sincere, honest, and spiritual response to the kind and Christian sentiments which the reverend gentlemen had expressed, and their earnest desire that in every way they should be able to meet, and act, and exercise Christian kindness with their reverend friends, without compromising their principles; but if there shall be striving between them, that it should only be as to who should show most zeal and energy in the cause of Christ. He hoped he might be allowed to say as to one gentleman in the deputation from the United Secession Synod, who had once been a friend of his, and he hoped would still be his friend, that he rejoiced to see him in such a company, and he hoped they would hereafter be enabled to act as brethren. (This allusion to Dr Brown was loudly cheered.) He thanked God they were now brought into a position so very different from that in which they formerly were, and it was his fervent prayer that He might bring them nearer and nearer to that position which would be most beneficial to Christianity in general, and would most tend to promote the glory of God. The reverend Doctor then moved the following resolution:

"The General Assembly acknowledge, with cordial satisfaction, the congratulations of the Reformed Presbyterian Synod, and of the United Associate Synod, communicated by their deputations, and the assurance of their brotherly sympathy and regard, and resolve to appoint deputations to attend the next meetings of these Synods respectively, in order to express to them the kind and cordial regard which this Assembly entertains towards them, and their earnest desire to co-operate with them and other evangelical communions in advancing the kingdom of their common Lord; and they instruct their Moderator to communicate to the deputations, by whose presence they have been favoured, the high gratification derived by this Assembly, from the intercourse which, on the part of the Reformed Presbyterian Synod, and the United Associate Synod, has now been opened with them-an intercourse which it will be the earnest desire of the Assembly Cultivate in a spirit of Christian charity and brotherhood."

Hon. Fox MAULe said It was my intention to have seconded, in a few remarks, the motion just now made by our reverend father, but at such a late period of the evening, and after the meeting has been so long detained, I could not do justice to the subject without doing a wrong to the Assembly. I will not, therefore, Moderator, stand between you and your duty farther than to express the deep gratitude I feel at the presence of these different deputations, and at the expressions of sympathy and Christian feeling to which they have given utterance. It was my intention not only to have called the attention of the Assembly to the debt of gratitude due to the deputations, but also to the great body of evangelical Christians throughout Scotland and England. (Applause.) When our people were left houseless, they were the first to take them in-(applause)—and there was no act of kindness which they saw they could do us, but they were ready to extend that kindness to us on the very earliest opportunity. As an elder of the church, and in the name of the elders of the church, I cannnot refrain from paying a compliment to these deputations for their conduct towards us. Although our sacrifices as elders are nothing to those of our ministers, yet many of them have done much on behalf of the Free Church of Scotland; and in their name I must state that we feel deeply indebted to those bodies from which these deputations have come, for the very deep interest they have taken in the prosperity of our cause, and for their attention to our comforts as a church; most especially do we return them our best and most grateful thanks for their expression of feeling towards our ministers-expressions of feeling which we shall never forget while life and memory hold their seats. (Applause.)

The MODERATOR then conveyed the thanks of the Assembly to the deputations.

The Assembly adjourned at ten minutes past twelve, to meet privately to-morrow at eleven o'clock, and publicly in the evening at seven.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19.

The Assembly met in the early part of the day in private deliberation on the financial affairs of the Church.

EVENING Sederunt.

The Assembly met at six o'clock this evening, the devotions being commenced by singing a portion of the second version of the 102d Psalm.

IRISH DEPUTATION.

The Assembly then called for the report of the commissioners to the Irish Presbyterian Church, as also the deputation from that Church.

ours.

Mr MAKGILL CRICHTON said-Moderator, I am well aware of the deeply important business which is to come before the Assembly to-night; and I will, therefore, not detain you by anything more than a mere account of my stewardship, in so far as I was a constituent part of your commission to the Presbyterian Church of Ireland. I can assure this Assembly, in my own name, and in that of my fathers and brethren who were sent to Ireland in July last, that we received the most cordial welcome that it is possible to conceive. We were delighted with all the procedure which we witnessed in that noble Christian Assembly; and I have to report, Sir, that their reception of the deputation of the Free Church of Scotland was in all respects corresponding to the momentous circumstances in which, as a Church, we are now placed. In every respect and particular they seemed to identify their interests with They were not content with offering their Christian prayers and their Christian sympathies; but they set an example to the Christian world by their Christian co-operation and aid. We were invited to go over the whole of Ulster, and to call upon our Presbyterian friends to show by their deeds, not by words, that they were alive to the exigencies of the case. They not only recommended to their several congregations to aid the Church of their fathers in erecting humble sanctuaries for the poorest of this land; but the example of liberality was set in the General Assembly itself. They did not issue an order and call upon the people to obey it; but they themselves struck the first blow, and they set the example in Presbyterian Belfast-in the heart of Presbyterian Ulster-and in one night they raised nearly L.3000 in the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ireland. (Great cheering.) The consequence was, that when my friend Mr Gray and I went to the other towns and cities of Ulster, every town became to us a little Belfast: they took their tone and their cue from the tone which had been sounded forth from head quarters, and in a few days the subscriptions from Presbyterian Ulster amounted to about L.7000 sterling, and I believe that the sum has since accumulated very nearly to the sum of L. 10,000. (Loud cheers.) I say that England has done well so far as she has been appealed to; America, also, has given us the first fruits of her liberality; but Presbyterian Ulster, that limited province, where great wealth does not prevail-the L.10,000 from Presbyterian Ulster is manifold more than what has been received from any Church or any other part of the kingdom. (Loud applause.) I add no more-time will not permit me to enter upon the subject as it deserves; and I prefer saying no more than to introduce to this Assembly the deputation from the sister Church, which is now ready to address you. (Cheers.)

Mr GOUDY of Strabane then addressed the house in an eloquent speech, for which we regret we cannot find room.

Mr MOLYNEIUX of Larne spoke as follows:-Moderator, I have been commissioned, in conjunction with my brethren who now appear before you, to wait upon this General Assembly, and to communicate the feelings and purposes of the Irish

Presbyterian Church in reference to this the Free Protesting Church of Scotland; and whilst I feel this to be a high honour, and that I enjoy an exalted privilege, still I also feel that I was guilty of great temerity in accepting this commission, inasmuch as I am conscious of my utter inadequacy to communicate the feelings of intense interest with which you are regarded in your present noble struggle by the Irish Presbyterians. They sympathise with you, not alone because you are a section of the true Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, not alone because you are Presbyterians holding the same standards and the same system of ecclesiastical polity with themselves, but they sympathise with you chiefly because this is their parent Church, and because from it, in bygone days, the spiritual light, and liberty, and freedom came, which have spread their meliorating influences over the north of Ireland for the last 200 years, during every period of social discord or political commotion. It is not, then, a matter of astonishment that Irish Presbyterians should sympathise with you, nay, it would be a subject of wonder if, forgetful of all these things, they could look with apathy or indifference upon this Church in its trials, in its difficulties, and in its righteous contendings. We saw from almost the commencement of the struggle that the contest was one which could not be accommodated-that some one of the parties must recede; and so fully convinced were we of the righteousness of your cause, and the integrity of the men by whom it was upheld, and of the splendid talents which were wielded in its support, that ultimate defeat was to you impossible on the ground of argument, and that, therefore, you would never barter for any earthly consideration the rights guaranteed to your Church by the charter of Heaven, Deep, therefore, was the interest with which we regarded your struggles, even when these were confined to the debates of your Assembly-debates in which the righteousness of your cause was demonstrated with a power of reasoning which swept all opposition before it, and which established alike the disinterested purity of your purposes, and the accordance of your principles with the ecclesiastical polity of the Word of God. We saw that year by year, so far from retrograding, you advanced. We could not but sympathise with you in your contendings for the same liberty which we enjoy, and for the casting aside of that yoke of bondage which we never bore, but the character of whose galling despotism we can very well appreciate and comprehend. But when in endeavouring to maintain unimpeached the allegiance which you owed to Christ, the sole King and Head of the Church, we saw your venerable ministers dragged before the civil courts-when we saw them fined and threatened, and the whole torrent of official insolence poured out against themwe would have been undeserving of the name of Presbyterian-we must have riven every emotion of gratitude from our bosoms-we must have quenched within us the fire of the chivalry of our native land-had we not sympathised with you in your sufferings had we not cherished feelings of the most intense interest with respect to your trials-and had we not made use of every effort within our power in order to avert the calamity and disruption by which your Church was impeded. Each new element, as the current of circumstances and the leadings of divine providence evolved it, heightened this interest; and we felt convinced that a crisis was at hand, the consequences of which no man could calculate-consequences which might run parallel, not merely with the destinies of this mighty empire, but with the destinies of the Church of Christ, to a period when the glories of the empires that now are shall only be known in the records of the historian, and which might contribute essentially to bring into activity that series of moral revolutions by which the despotism of the Man of Sin shall be overthrown, and the principles established by which the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ. You felt that you could not submit to the statute law of the realm, as it was interpreted in relation to the rights of the Church; you felt that a direct attempt was made to set aside the law of Christ, and introduce the law of man in its stead; you felt that the demands of the civil court were extended not alone to those things situated on the boundary-line which divides the realms of earthly monarchs from the kingdom of Christ, but to things situated in the very centre of Christ's kingdom, and holding the most influential relations to the other great scriptural principles by which its affairs are governed;

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